|
Will the police state screw him again??? Probably
Original Article
WINDSOR, N.C. - A man who was sentenced to die, then freed after prosecutors at his murder trial were shown to have hidden exonerating evidence, was charged Wednesday with having sex with a underage girl who is now pregnant, authorities said.
Alan Gell, 31, is charged with 14 counts each of statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor for allegedly starting a relationship last year with a 15-year-old girl, authorities said. He also was charged with cocaine possession.
The girl, now 16, is pregnant and has told investigators that Gell may be the father, according to a search warrant.
Gell's mother, Jeannette Johnson, said in an interview that the girl told her son she was 17. Johnson also said officers found cocaine residue in a closet of a mobile home she had bought at auction for her son.
"I know Alan is not doing drugs," Johnson said. "They can pull a hair and tell that. The cocaine residue could have been something in there from a previous owner."
She also said Gell's family can't pay the $322,000 bond.
When he was arrested, Gell earned a living by speaking at anti-death penalty meetings, his mother said.
According to state law, a sexual relationship with a person under 16 is statutory rape if differences in the partners' ages is six years or more. Conviction carries a potential prison sentence of 16 to 40 years.
Gell spent nine years in prison half of it on death row after he was convicted of murdering a retired truck driver in 1995.
A judge ordered a new trial in 2002 because prosecutors withheld evidence, including a taped phone call in which the state's star witnesses said they had to "make up a story" for investigators.
Gell was acquitted at a second trial in 2004.
He has sued two investigators, a senior attorney and two former prosecutors in the Attorney General's Office. The North Carolina State Bar reprimanded both former prosecutors in 2004 for withholding the evidence.
|
|
|